Homework Help: Health: Mental Health: Stress

What exactly is stress?

Stress is something that causes your blood pressure, muscle tension, and heart rate to rise when you see or imagine something. You may have imagined something scary or anything that greatly changes your emotions. For example, you haven't been doing well in your math class for the quarter. Now, the final test is coming up and if you don't get a perfect score, you'll fail math! What are you going to do? A few other examples are:

• doctors are going to conduct surgery on you in an hour
• you're in the car with your basketball team and you're the only one that has to use the bathroom ... and you have to go bad!
• you're suspected of having blood cancer and a blood test will be ready in ten minutes to decide whether or not you have blood cancer
• you broke your dad's soccer trophy and he's about to come home any minute
• you're about to beat a Nintendo level you've been trying to beat for one year
• in a few minutes your favorite friends are coming over and all of you are going to have a huge, fun party!

As you can see, stress is not necessarily being embarrassed or something bad that's going to happen to you. It just means that your mental and/or physical states are higher than normal for the time being!

Is stress normal?

Yes! People experience stress everyday, and one person may be experiencing stress three times a day because they are more active. Lack of stress is actually considered unhealthy. Stress serves as mental and physical exercise.

When is stress not normal?

Stress is not normal usually when the person feels that they are experiencing too much stress. You can also catch stress abnormally through diseases such as acidosis, cirrhosis, and a few others. You should tell your parents or someone who can help if you know you're experiencing too much stress. Too much stress could be very bad and will affect your mental abilities along with physical functions. You could also catch ulcers, have a high blood pressure, get heart disease, or have a weaker immune system. With a weak immune system, you will be more prone to catch common disease like a cold or the flu.

What exactly happens in your body during stress?

When in stress, the pituitary gland releases adrenocorticotropic hormones which then makes the adrenal glands release substances that speed up your heart rate. Speeding up the heart rate will also mean that your blood pressure will go up and you will have more muscle tension. The reason for this is not yet fully understood by scientists who research stress.

What if someone has too much stress?

First, they should see the doctor. Then, there will be treatments like tranquilizers and psychotherapy which have been developed to treat stress. But, because stress has not yet been fully understood, there is no treatment that will guarantee a reduction or prevention of stress. You might even say that there is no cure for stress that has been developed yet.

Homework Help: Health: Mental Health

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